Simon Fish of BMO Financial Group may now introduce himself as the best in-house lawyer in Canada.

Yet Mr. Fish is not the sort of guy who would assert such bragging rights. He’s more of a team player — a point that is underscored by looking at the route by which Mr. Fish found himself named Canadian General Counsel of the Year at the 2013 Canadian General Counsel Awards on Monday night.

The CGCAs were founded nine years ago by ZSA Legal Recruitment and the National Post. We’re bringing you a full section on the awards in Friday’s paper. For now, here’s a run down of what happened at the gala.

The GC of the year typically goes to someone who helped engineer a blockbuster corporate deal. Mr. Fish, executive vice-president and general counsel with BMO, obviously sees his share of financial deals. But his name was placed in contention for the GC of the Year honour in relation to corporate social responsibility and diversity initiatives he has helped oversee at the bank. Indeed, as was pre-announced last month, BMO’s legal team was itself honoured on Monday night with the Social Responsibility Award.

“This is huge,” Mr. Fish said after he accepted the GC of the Year award. “I count myself as a very lucky person. I have my family, my friends, my health. But I also do what I love, and I get to love what I do.”

Earlier in the evening, when he rose to accept the social responsibility award on behalf of BMO, he challenged the assumption that corporate social responsibility involves giving some money to charity and little else. “We see it as a fundamental duty for banks, for law firms, and for other corporations, in return for the privilege of doing business in our communities.”

The bank took the social responsibility award for its efforts to have a more diverse leadership and workforce. This initiative comes with some specific targets. For example, BMO expects 40% of its executives to be women by the end of 2016.

The Litigation Management honour was jointly awarded to two counsel from two different companies for their work on related legal files. Andrea Cotroneo, vice president and senior managing region counsel with Mastercard, and Amy Gaskin, general counsel and head of legal with Visa Canada Corp., were recognized for their work on two big cases, an enforcement action brought against the credit card companies by the federal Commissioner of Competition and a class action lawsuit filed by consumers.

“I am delighted that Amy and I have been selected for this award,” Ms. Cotroneo said. “It’s certainly easy to win an award for litigation management when you have a great team,” Ms. Gaskin added.

Peter Brent, general counsel and chief privacy officer with CML HealthCare Inc., was recipient of the Mid-Market Excellence Award. “I have to confess that I am truly uncomfortable with individual recognition, because whatever we accomplish in life that is truly important is a ‘we’ and not an ‘I’ and that’s certainly true with me,” Mr. Brent said.

The battle for control of Canada’s leading stock exchanges led to a Dealmaking Award for Sharon Pel, senior vice president and group head of legal and business affairs, TMX Group. She explained how the series of deals, which took nearly three years to close, involved almost every legal technique one could imagine. “Not many of us is going to see something like this again anytime soon.”

Speaking of proxy battles, Alexander Singh, general counsel and secretary of West Face Capital, is officially a name to watch. He received the Tomorrow’s Leader award for his work with the asset manager, which has emerged as a formidable activist shareholder. “West Face has grown extremely rapidly over the past three years and I’m fortunate to be part of its success.”

Calin Rovinescu, president and chief executive officer of Air Canada, received the Business Achievement award. Mr. Rovinescu returned to the airline in 2009. He had worked with the airline during the early 2000s, but left in 2004 to work with an investment bank. Prior to Air Canada, he was a lawyer in the Montreal office of Stikeman Elliott LLP. Mr. Rovinescu wasn’t present at the gala, but he delivered a brief speech via video in which he gave credit to Air Canada’s in-house lawyers. “The legal team at Air Canada is an integral part of my strategy, is a tremendous system of support, and gives me the background that I need in order to be able to execute efficiently.”

Announced last month was the recipient of this year’s lifetime achievement award, Daniel Desjardins, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary with Bombardier Inc. He received the award on Monday. “Life is good for me. I’m not retired and not dead,” he said. “Tonight I count my blessings.”

Mr. Desjardins joined Bombardier in 1998 and has helped grow the size of its legal department to its current roster of 175 lawyers in 17 countries. “I take pride in the fact that no law firm in the world can match our expertise in selling planes and trains,” he said.

A sizeable group helps organize the awards each year. I’d like to squeeze in two names. Litigator Terry O’Sullivan of Lax O’Sullivan Scott Lisus LLP brought his usual wit to the stage as master of ceremonies for the gala. And Dan Malamet of ZSA Legal Recruitment deserves special mention for the tremendous amount of work he does on this event each year.